Gamechanger
by GrrHero
Summary: Basketball star and overall popular student, Itachi, starts to develop feelings for radical outcast, Deidara. ItaDei AU.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Naruto

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><p><strong>Gamechanger<strong>

Itachi looked over at the blonde boy in the desk adjacent to his as their teacher droned on about some moon princess, her suitors, and their trials. The blonde had his head down feverishly sweeping his pencil across the notebook before him as the afternoon sun shone through the windows radiating off of his golden mane. Itachi knew the boy was not doing his classwork, he used much too long of strokes, and would swivel the page around as he drew.

This was not the first time Itachi had taken notice of the blonde. His name was Deidara, and he was a friend of Sasori, a smaller boy on the basketball team with Itachi. Itachi often found his attention being drawn to the blue-eyed boy in class, and at social gatherings they both attended. They had spoken to each other a few times, mostly about Sasori's infatuation with their voluptuous science instructor. He found Deidara to be engaging, if not a bit short tempered.

As Deidara's hand came to a halt Itachi snatched the notebook impulsively. Itachi was surprised by his actions; he was not an impulsive person. He measured the consequences of everything he did, from joining the basketball team to not running for student-body president. The second-year student would take in to consideration the effect they would have on his studies, and the benefits when scholarship time rolled around. But now, he was quickly trying to come up with an excuse as the artist interrupted the class.

"Hey, give that back!" Deidara yelled, jumping to his feet and fetching the attention of the classroom.

"Is there something wrong, Deidara?" the teacher asked condescendingly. It was no secret that most of the faculty did not hold Deidara in high regard. He often contradicted popular theories, arguing more radical ideas.

Deidara rolled his eyes at the instructor's tone. "Yeah. Mr. Perfect, here stole my notebook," Deidara replied pointing to the thief.

With the teacher's inquisitive eyes on him, Itachi simply said, "Sorry, Mr. Ebisu. I was only making sure that Deidara was taking notes and not goofing off."

"And?" the teacher questioned patiently. While Deidara was not the belle of the ball at their high-school, Itachi was. He had proven himself to the students and faculty many times in his first year at the high-school. The power forward was a leader on and off the court. Itachi had become the top student of his class, and allotted time to tutor others on the days he did not have practice. On the court, he started every game and became a captain of the basketball squad while leading them in points on the road to a National Championship; only to lose the last game by a handful of goals.

Itachi looked at the open page of the notebook. He saw a detailed drawing of an atomic mushroom cloud centered with the sky parting above it. In the foreground, a butterfly tried to maneuver the gale winds while a cluster of mushrooms sat bent by the blast on the opposite side of the page.

"It seems to be in order, Mr. Ebisu," he stated raising his eyes to meet the teacher's. "Sorry for the disturbance," Itachi finished with a slight smile while looking back down to the drawing. He scribbled a quick message on the back of the page, and offered it back to the upset boy standing over him. Deidara snatched the notebook.

"Very well. Deidara, will you please take your seat? I'd like to finish my lesson," the teacher said in the same demeaning tone.

With a huff Deidara took his seat once more. He eyeballed the picture before sending a suspicious glance to his right at Itachi, who was taking notes on the teacher's lecture. Deidara lifted the page to read his message, 'You're very good, but what's with the mushrooms?' Casting another look at Itachi, Deidara felt unsettled by the subtle, seductive, half-cocked smirk the boy wore while nonchalantly continuing to take notes. Itachi's hand slowed as he raised his head to look over at the him. Deidara whipped his head around to look back to his notebook.

The two boys were silent during the rest of class. Throughout, they both caught the other looking at them. When the bell finally rang, they matched each other's pace in packing up their supplies.

Shouldering his backpack, Itachi politely followed Deidara out of the door. His eyes unconsciously raking down the tamed chaos of Deidara's hair and his classmate's lithe frame. As Deidara slowed his stride to walk beside the athlete, Itachi schooled his features to mask the foreign feeling in his gut to touch the artist.

"The mushrooms represent ugliness," Deidara said tilting his head up to look at Itachi.

"Hmm?" Itachi hummed. He blinked his thoughts away, distracted by the fluidity of Deidara lips. "Sorry, what?" he questioned meeting incandescent blue eyes.

"Humph. I said the mushrooms are ugliness," Deidara restated, irritated. At Itachi's look of confusion he continued, exacerbated, "Explosions are chaotic. They'll destroy everything. Anything." He paused as the two stopped at Deidara's locker in the busy hallway. "The butterfly represents something beautiful," he said opening the locker. "Or at least in most people's opinion." He looked over to his classmate to see that Itachi was standing a few lockers down from his own inputting a combination. Deidara was mildly surprised that he had never noticed that the school's most popular student had a locker so close to his.

Putting the appropriate books into his backpack, Itachi turned to Deidara. "So... Explosions are beautiful, because they don't ever judge?" Itachi asked gaining a shocked, wide-eyed look from the artist. Itachi nodded contemplatively, "Poetic."

Deidara was stunned, frozen, ramrod. Someone had understood the art in indiscrimination. And not just anyone, but Itachi: the basketball team's star player, the top student, Mr. Perfect. A person that Deidara was sure had never had to deal with a nasty rumor, or even a bully slinging jabs; verbal or physical.

Students buzzed about the corridor as the two stared at each other.

Then, they were shaken back to the present by the voice of their friend and teammate as he leaned against the lockers between them.

"What's up?" Sasori asked as he loosened his black school tie from around his collar.

Deidara feigned recovery, stuffing his messenger bag with random books from his locker. He was vocally incapacitated, his mind wandering about the tall handsome boy a few lockers down. His thoughts were sent further into spiral by Itachi's smooth husky voice.

"Nothing. Deidara and I were just talking about art," Itachi said looking down to his teammate. He pulled his hair back into a low ponytail, wrapping a hair-tie around it at the nape of his neck. His eyes flickered up to the blue ones avoiding him above Sasori's fiery mop.

"Oh, hell. I'm sorry," Sasori apologized levering himself off of the lockers to look at Itachi. "Once he," he cast his thumb over his shoulder at Deidara, "gets started, he'll never shut up." Lowering his hand back to his side, "It's all explosions are beautiful, true art is in the moment, and shit. Totally gay," he finished with a apologetic shrug.

Itachi saw Deidara flinch at the last word from his teammate. He met Sasori's gaze before saying, "It's fine. I actually instigated the conversation, and it was very educational." He moved his line of vision up to Deidara's, finally catching the artist's gaze, and gave the boy a charming smile. "As well as fun."

Huffing, Sasori started, "Whatever. Talking about art, you should of seen Mrs. Tsunade today. Hidan pissed her off, not that that's anything new, but she bent over her desk and I could see straight down her shirt." He had a dreamy glaze over his eyes as he continued, "I'd happily let her smother me with those things." He made a gesture, cupping invisible breasts to emphasize his statement. He watched Itachi roll his eyes. Lowering his hands again, he dropped his voice an octave. Mockingly serious, Sasori said, "It would be an honorable death."

Chuckling at his teammate's constant adoration for their chemistry teacher's chest, Itachi closed his locker. He looked back to Sasori saying, "Whatever you say, buddy." Readjusting his school bag, he nodded to the side. "You ready for practice?"

"Yeah," Sasori said. He turned around catching Deidara's eye, "You coming?"

Deidara shook his head. "Nah, I've got some totally gay art stuff to do," he said with a rueful smile. "I'll meet up with you afterwards."

"Alright, man." Sasori spun and headed down the hallway.

Looking at Deidara, Itachi said, "I'll see you later." He winked at the other boy. They both looked a little shocked at the action, while Itachi felt his cheeks flare up.

He quickly turned around and followed Sasori down the corridor. Itachi mentally berated himself on the way to the gym. 'Why did I just wink at him? What has gotten into me? First, I'm stealing his notebook. Then, I'm checking him out. Oh boy, I checked him out! And I winked at him. What is going on?'

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><p>"Good hustle, guys. That's the power of youth!" The basketball coach yelled over the drum of the ball on the court and the squeak of sneakers against it.<p>

Practice had been difficult on the returning starters: Kakuzu, Kisame, and Itachi. Since the former starting point guard and small forward had graduated, Coach Gai had been switching out backups to see the chemistry between the players. Hidan had fallen right into pace at the forward position, but Sasori and Yahiko were struggling to keep up. They were both trying to hard to earn the starting guard slot.

Kakuzu, the third-year shooting guard, threw the ball back into play to Sasori. Sasori dribbled the ball across mid-court, one hand in the air signalling the next play to run. The team was running simple plays for the new point guards.

The second stringers, lead by Yahiko, Sasori's competition for starter, fell into a zone formation. Kisame, the starting center, sat up beside Itachi's opponent for a pick while the power forward shot around them. Sasori squared up for the pass, slinging the ball at Itachi, and hitting him in the face. The ball bounced limply to the hardwood before a backup snatched it up.

"Useless Fuck!" Hidan yelled at the struggling guard as he took off after the ball-carrier, who had headed to the other side of the court. Hidan was not fast enough and the second stringer scored on an easy layup. "Damnit, Sasori," he yelled across the hardwood.

"Alright, guys. That's enough for the day. Do a couple cool down laps then hit the showers," Coach Gai called out after blowing his whistle. "Hidan, can I talk to you for a minute?" The forward jogged over to his coach where they had a quiet conversation.

Itachi led the laps with Kisame close behind him. The captain slowed his pace till he settled beside Sasori. Nudging his teammate with his elbow, Itachi gave Sasori a nod.

"Don't worry about that. It was my fault for not catching the ball," Itachi said taking up his captain duties. "If you want, we can work on..." His voice failed as the large double doors to the gym were wrenched open. Deidara sauntered through with his school bag bouncing lightly against his side. His tie was undone and hanging easy against his untucked shirt. The artist's long mane was pulled up into a high ponytail. Itachi was glad that his body did not betray him and trip at the sight.

"No. It's my fault," Sasori said while giving Deidara a nod of acknowledgement. "I just don't want to ride the bench this year. Again." He finish with a determined look in his eye, "I'll just have to try harder." With that, he took off; pushing his body, and running past the other players to take the lead.

Itachi wanted to catch up to his teammate and work on their timing, he did not want to be slowing to a walk. He did not want to be raising his hand to coyly wave at the boy that was taking a seat a few rows up the bleachers. The basketball player could not help the small grin that spread across his face as Deidara sent a equally demure wave back at him. 'What am I thinking?' Itachi thought to himself as he stopped at the foot of the stands before Deidara.

"Hey."

"...Hi," Deidara replied, hesitantly, confused. He pulled his satchel on to his lap. Deidara watched as Itachi looked around awkwardly with the basketball team jogging around the court behind him.

"So...," the power forward said pursing his lips askew. "How did your art thing go?"

Eyeballing the team's captain suspiciously, Deidara reluctantly answered, "Okay." He saw Itachi slowly nod his head. "Do you really care, or is this some kind of game you're playing at?" he asked hotly.

Itachi vigorously shook his head. "I'm not playing at anything. I just...," he was not sure what he was doing, so he let the unfinished sentence hang in the air. Recovering, he asked, "What did you do?" The basketball star corrected himself, "I mean for your project or whatever."

"I blew up a trash can," Deidara stated flatly.

"Really?" Itachi questioned with a surprised chuckle.

"Yeah," the artist replied almost gleefully. Inching forward on his seat, he leaned toward the other boy. "Then I took pictures of the trash outside of its so called natural habitat," Deidara said with such disgust that Itachi could not help but grin. Seeing the light in the basketball player's face, Deidara's eyes lit up as he asked, "You wanna see?" When Itachi gave him a confirming nod, Deidara pulled his camera from his bag and stood. He hopped down to the last bleacher, standing slightly higher than the basketball player. "Here," he said powering up the device and handing it to Itachi.

As Itachi looked at the photograph of half burnt candy wrappers, partially destroyed soda-pop cans, and a single intact banana peel, Deidara inspected Itachi's features. He saw the pale flesh of Itachi's cheek turning the discolored violet of a bruise. The artist gently combed the basketball player's long black fringe behind his ear. As obsidian eyes shoot up to stare at Deidara's shimmering blue ones, he cupped his cheek. He gingerly ran the pad of his thumb over the forming bruise causing Itachi to pinch his face.

"What happened?" Deidara asked softly.

"Nothing. We just messed up a play and I took a ball to the face," Itachi said growing more comfortable with Deidara's affections.

The artist giggled. "Balls to the face suck," Deidara said with a wink.

Across the court, the team was headed into the locker room. Hidan came running up to them before they reached the door out of the gymnasium. He was elated as he grabbed Kakuzu's shoulder.

"I fuckin' did it. I'm the new starter!" He shouted at the rest of the team.

Turning around at the outburst, Sasori caught sight of his best friend standing on the bleachers cupping the team captain's cheek. Ignoring the congratulations going on around him, his eyes narrowed as Deidara visibly laughed at something Itachi said. Sasori watched as the two's bodies relaxed while they talked.

"Looks like you've got competition off the court too," a deep voice said from above the short guard.

Sasori looked up over his shoulder to see Kisame's towering frame. "What?" he questioned innocently.

"Not only is the midget gonna sit the bench, but his boyfriend is cheatin' on him with Mr. Prefect," Hidan laughed. The whole team, save Kakuzu who did not care for other people's affairs, stared at their captain talking with the artist.

"He's not my boyfriend," Sasori argued. "We're not like that. That's gross," he said heatedly; getting in Hidan's face.

"Oh, jealousy does not look good on you, gaylord," the new starting forward teased.

As Sasori shoved Hidan, Kisame's massive hands came down on both of their shoulders. He pushed them apart, holding them with ease. "Go get in the showers. I'll take care of Itachi," the giant center stated leaving no room for any more argument.

Sasori roughly pushed Kisame's hand off of him. He thrust past the other players on his way to the locker room. The guard threw the door open, banging it against the wall beyond as he heard Hidan's continual chuckles.

Kisame waited for the rest of the team to disappear behind him before calling out to the power forward across the gym. He had known Itachi for nearly ten years. They met as rivals in a pee-wee basketball league when they were seven. Both being the tallest on their respective teams, they were matched up against each other. Neither of them had scored during the game. Since then, the two boys had played countless pickup games and when middle-school had started they found themselves on the same team for the first time. As the years went by, they formed a loose friendship. Unbeknownst to Itachi, Kisame considered the other boy his best friend, though they hardly ever talked about anything more than basketball or Kisame's secret love for their classmate Kurenai.

"Itachi!" Kisame yelled across the hardwood drawing the two other boys' attention as Deidara hastily retracted his hand. "Time to call it a day, Bro."

"Well," Itachi said as he and Deidara turned back to each other. "I guess I've got to go," he continued, unsure why he felt like he was apologizing. He had had fun speaking with the artist, but Itachi felt like if he left now something would be missing. 'He's smiling at me. What is this?' the basketball player thought as he looked up into Deidara's radiant blue eyes. 'He really is... It's like I want to...,' Itachi would not let the himself think certain words that where right at the edge of his consciousness. 'Oh, no.'

Casting his gaze through his eyelashes, Deidara bit his lip flirtatiously at the attractive power foward. Releasing it, though he had meant to simply say the words with the confidence he normally projected, he queried, "I'll see you later?" He shuffled his feet, locking his hands behind his back, the picture of anxious.

"Umm...," Itachi suddenly felt fear, excitement, desire weighing deep his body. His eyes, his tongue, and his limbs refused to move. The boy was trapped by Deidara, the artist's playful gaze, his apprehensive body language. The athlete inwardly panicked.

"Itachi!"

He sighed, relieved as he heard Kisame yell out across the gym once again, breaking his stupor. Itachi hesitantly took a step back. "Bye," he squeaked embarrassingly as he turned to jog over to the tall center.

Deidara watched as Kisame clasped his hand around Itachi's shoulder. After the center said something making their way into the locker room, Itachi sent a fleeting nervous glance over his shoulder to Deidara. The artist relaxed his stance once the two basketball players were safely past the locker room door, taking his seat next to his bag again.

The wide smile he wore was going no where. Deidara felt like moving, like dancing, like shouting his elation. For all intents and purposes the hottest guy in school seemed to be in to him.

Deidara knew he liked boys, men, males; that he was gay. In his second year of middle-school, he had been changing in the locker room before gym class, and realized that he was staring at some of the other boys' bodies. For weeks he had panicked: wondering what was wrong with him, why he was like this, and if anyone could tell. In the year that followed his revelation, his entry demeanor had changed. He started to control his flamboyant hand gestures, and masked the nervous, cool sweat that would envelop him when a cute guy talked to him. That is not to say he did not have bullies picking on him for his long hair, or feminine figure.

Rumors had rose quickly about his sexuality, until he broke down and feigned interest in a girl long enough to lose his virginity at a party so that everyone in attendance would be sure to know. He broke her heart, dumping her shortly afterwards, and did not deal with bullies for the rest of his middle-school days. When he started high-school, Deidara kept to himself, save his friendship with Sasori. The rumors began again, but the artist could not bring himself to do to another girl, or himself, what he had done to the first. Slowly the gossip died to a few hushed whispers, and now he was mostly ignored by the other students. That was until this afternoon, almost three hours ago, when Mr. Perfect had snatched his notebook in literature class.

The artist let his thoughts wander as he pulled his sketchbook from his bag.

Deidara was absorbed by his work when his friend walked out of the locker room.

Sasori stared at Deidara as he made his way across the hardwood. He studied his friend's slender arms as Deidara drew, and the way his blonde tresses were bound high and hanging down his neck. The short basketball player thought that his friend looked distinctively feminine in his posture. He knew of all the sorted things that had happened with Deidara through the years: the rumors, the girl, and the bullies. Deidara had always told him that they were mistaken, that he was not like the way they said he was. But, Sasori had seen how the artist and his team captain interacted earlier.

"You ready?" Sasori questioned coldly as he stopped in front of the bleachers.

"Yep," Deidara replied. He put away his materials, and stood. He cheerfully bounced down the stands shouldering his bag.

The two left the gym in silence; one's thoughts on a tall handsome basketball star and the other's on ridicule and strife.

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><p>Itachi and Kisame where walking home under the early evening sun. Neither had said anything about what had happened between Itachi and Deidara in the gymnasium. Their teammates had teased Itachi a bit when he arrived in the showers, but with a wave of his hand and a not-so-feigned interest in art, the subject was dropped.<p>

Itachi's gait was pensive, laden with decision. He wondered what all his thought's meant. Why he could not get Deidara's features out of his head. Itachi wanted nothing more than to just forget the way the artist had looked at him when they had parted. But his companion had other ideas.

"So," Kisame started. "What's up with you and Blondie?"

Itachi stopped walking. He turned to Kisame, who paused his own steps a few feet ahead of the his friend. His eyes were wide in confusion.

"Bro, it's cool," Kisame said shrugging with a small grin, playing off his question. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

Sighing, Itachi started to trek down the sidewalk once more. Kisame fell in to the slow stride next to him. The two were silent as the sun was setting under the hills outside of town.

"I don't know what's going on," Itachi breathed.

Kisame measured his next question, hesitant, sympathetic. "Are you gay?"

"Shit," Itachi hissed. The curse surprised both of them. It was rare that the power forward used such words. The last, and only time, Kisame had heard his friend speak like that was after the team had lost the National Championship the previous year. "I don't know," Itachi's voice was raw, angry, and tired. He used his hand to push his long ebony locks back agitatedly. "Maybe," he breathed out heavily, his temper cooling and hair falling back into place. "I mean how am I suppose to know?" Itachi finished looking up to his friend slightly hopefully.

"Whoa, Bro," Kisame stressed raising his hands up in defeat. "You're asking the wrong guy. I've liked pussy since Kurenai grew tits."

"I know," Itachi said dejectedly. He began to make his way home, Kisame keeping pace beside him.

"Look, Bro. Maybe you should look some stuff up on the net or some shit," Kisame offered.

"I will. It's just so weird," Itachi said. At his friend's inquisitive glance Itachi continued. "When he was around today my body wouldn't listen to me. He's just so...," he struggled trying to find the correct word. 'Intriguing. Pretty,' Itachi shook thoughts clear. 'Pretty?'

Kisame nodded, "I know what you mean. Every time I'm around Kurenai, I can't stop myself from saying, or doing something stupid."

Itachi chuckled as they turned down his street. "Like that time you said you wanted to bare knuckle fight a shark."

"Yeah," Kisame grinned shaking his head. "Fuckin' idiot." He readjusted his book-bag, his face falling seriously. "Itachi," he said drawing the other's attention. "If you like him, or whatever, that's cool. I don't care if you're gay, Bro. I'm still going to be your friend and," he paused placing his hand on Itachi's shoulder when they stopped at the gate to the power forward's house. "I'll always have your back, Bro."

Itachi nodded woefully. "Thanks, Kisame. I'm glad you're okay with...," he rolled his eyes, "whatever this is." He opened the gate in front of his family's modest two-story house. "Bye," Itachi called out to his friend as he made his way up to the porch.

Kisame sent a backhanded wave over his shoulder, "Later, Bro."


End file.
